2018 Eurovision Reviews – Austria

Early on in the national final season, Austria internally selected their artists, then made us wait months upon months to hear their entry. The artist is Cesár Sampson, who is no stranger to Eurovision having been a part of the Symphonix International team, and was a part of the last two Bulgarian entries. Having done backing vocals for Poli Genova and Kristian Kostov, both of which were huge successes, it was time for Cesár to step into the spotlight. This year he’ll be performing the entry Nobody But You, which was unsurprisingly created by Symphonix International.

We didn’t really know what to expect from the Austrian song this year, but being a Symphonix song, the bar was set pretty high. We loved the Austrian entry from last year, but this year’s entry is a whole new ball game. This song is soulful, catchy and classy – a song that Austria should be incredibly proud of, regardless of the result!

It’s the type of song that hooks you in from the first second. The piano mixed with Cesár’s smooth and deep vocals is a match made in heaven. As the song grows into the chorus, we are introduced to the beat that the song keeps for the remainder of the three minutes, and it’s this beat that transforms the song from what could have been a ballad, to more of a pop entry. The gospel feel of this song is something we don’t always hear at Eurovision, but just imagining these vocals and backing vocals on stage is already giving me goosebumps.

A big positive of this song is that is has a clear structure, but in each verse, and each chorus, we see differentiation in the vocals, so it’s not just two dimensional. It all builds to that bridge, which is one of the highlights of the song for me. One of the other big highlights for me is actually the final note of the song. We usually expect Eurovision songs to end on a big note, but the note this song ends on is so pure, it’s almost painfully smooth. Hearing him sing this one note in an Instagram video just proved to me that we’re definitely in for an incredible vocal performance – he’s immensely talented, that’s for sure.

A strong song needs a strong staging, and I really hope that we see something that matches the class of this song. Usually I can imagine what a song would look like on stage, but this one still puzzles me. This is probably one of those songs that needs to play with light and dark on stage with clever lighting, and especially in the bridge of the song, as they’ve done in the music video.

All Aboard… the gospel train!

This is something truly spectacular, and I really hope this is rewarded on the night. I can see this being a big hit with the jury, but also the televoters, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in the Top 10. I’m running out of good things to say, but I think you get the picture now!